Covariation of physical and mental symptoms across illnesses: results of a factor analytic study

• Published in: Annals of behavioral medicine Vol. 21; no. 2; pp. 122 - 127
• Main Authors: Schwartz, C E, Kaplan, R M, Anderson, J P, Holbrook, T, Genderson, M W
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Oxford University Press 1999
• Subjects: Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome - psychology; Adult; AIDS/HIV; Canada; Chronic Disease; Chronic illnesses; Comorbidity; Diabetes; Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 - psychology; Factor Analysis, Statistical; Female; Health care policy; Health psychology; Health Status; Humans; Injuries; Male; Mental Health; Middle Aged; Multicenter Studies as Topic; Multiple Sclerosis - psychology; Neoplasms - psychology; Patients; Surveys and Questionnaires; Trauma; Trauma Severity Indices; United States; Wounds and Injuries - psychology; Canada; United States; United States > US; California
• ISSN: 0883-6612; 1532-4796
• DOI: 10.1007/BF02908292

Chronic illnesses are associated with reports of symptoms, problems, and dysfunction along multiple dimensions. To determine if the dimensionality is disease-specific and whether physical and emotional symptoms are concomitant and inseparable aspects of the illness experience, we present a factor analysis of symptom and problem reports from five different chronic conditions. People with five different conditions participated in this study: multiple sclerosis (MS) (n = 263), non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (n = 420), nonhead nonneck injury trauma (n = 852), and a group of terminal patients comprised of acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) (n = 99) and cancer (n = 74) patients. Participants were asked to complete the Quality of Well-Being Scale (QWB) and symptom items from the QWB were factor analyzed. Both within each condition and across conditions, two factors accounted for the majority of the explained variance and could be described as an Observable Limitations factor and a Subjective Symptoms factor. Our factor analyses suggest that physical and emotional symptoms covary and are common to different types of illness.